Indian see white man about to shoot self in foot. Indian say NO...
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Monday, December 10, 2012

What if Hell is actually a place in time?

We haven't found Heaven in
the heavens and nobody really expects to find Hell at the center of
the Earth. So, where are they? Maybe "where" is not the right question.
Maybe the right question is; when are
they?

Heaven and Hell could be
metaphors for our possible futures here on Earth. In fact, the
accounts of Heaven and Hell appear to be lessons on the consequences
of our actions. Herein lies a overlooked positive potential influence
on our behavior. What if Heaven and Hell are reminders of our
significant power to influence the future?

Maybe we have been
selfishly focusing on our own personal lives (and afterlives) so much
that we have missed the big picture. Maybe the “life after death”
in this world (that we have been ignoring) is the lives of future
generations.

It would only make sense
that we not endeavor to kill people in the future. Remember; “thou
shall not kill.” ...If we emit poisons into the Environment (that
we know will eventually kill people) isn't that committing a sin? And
it appears that some religious organizations are beginning to take
notice.

It may be that the
greatest potential positive influences of religion on humanity could
be to get us to consider the long-term consequences of our actions –
and to focus on maximizing happiness instead of quick profits. There
is definitely a need... now... to do some well thought
out evaluating (and planning) for what we really want.
Our religions have the moral responsibility to take high ground on
this (even if it means lower tithes for a while). And everyone who is
a member of a religious organization needs to be working towards
improving their religious organization's focus – even if it means
fundamental change.

What our society needs to
focus on now is finding the best, happiest, healthiest, most
sustainable path for us and future generations to follow. What our
religious organizations need to do is teach that path. But this isn't
quite happening. Or at least it isn't happening fast enough to avoid
a future Hell on Earth. My wish is that our religious leaders be more
open to looking forward, without limiting themselves by the
overpowering constraints of the ancient documents of the past. If
there is a God, he (obviously) gave us minds to think with. And
(obviously) we make the best decisions with the most up to date
information. All I ask is that we think clearly, plan wisely, and act
responsibly.

...In my humble opinion;
only the lazy just pray. (That would essentially be;
defining your goals, and then sitting back and waiting for them to
come to you.) Instead ofjust relying solely on prayer for salvation,
maybe humanity needs to build our salvation (our ark). Doesn't it say
somewhere that God helps those who help themselves? Isn't there
something about following a path of righteousness? There's a time to
think and a time to act. The thinking comes first. But sooner or
later we have to act.

Humanity's situation is
now different from what it has ever been before. And every new day is
an opportunity to re-evaluate what righteousness is. It only makes
sense that we need to adjust what we perceive good behavior to be
– based upon what tools we have now.

One of our most effective
tools for re-evaluation (of the consequences of our actions) is our capacity to predict the future –
better than we have in the past – because we are now closer to
it...

Imagine if, sometime after
we die; the Earth becomes a man-made-hell because of our actions now?
Wouldn't that make us sinners? Wouldn't realizing that destructive
potential make us more responsible? ...Wouldn't it at least make us
more aware of our actions?

No ancient text gives us
clear guidelines on how to deal with the consequences of our new
technologies. We have to decide what the righteous path is.

Example:

Most everyone is familiar
with the Terminatormovies. They depict a future that has gone
horribly wrong for humanity. (The movie Screamers also
deserves a mention.) These films depict a future where our own
robotic "tools" turn against us. In the Terminator scenario, the
artificial intelligence develops its own evil intents. But in the
Screamers scenario, rebels build the robotic tools of
destruction that self-innovate to catastrophic proportions. Either
way, humanity sows
the seeds of our own hyper-violent destruction.

Most everyone is also
familiar with the Isaac Asimov novel (and movie) I, Robot.
Written in the 1940's, it highlights three
laws of robotics. The very first law, at the top of the
list is:

A robot may not
injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.

And here we are now;
totally ignoring that advice, and training
our most advanced drones to kill people. Our drone
development is playing directly into the
Terminator/Screamers scenario. And we can't just vote to stop
America from building drone weapons. Anybody
can do it. Worldwide, dozens of designs have already been built.
Some by people we call terrorists. Likely, someday soon, no one
will be safe from drones.

Arms buildups such as this
follow an inevitable trend. Humanity builds tools to kill each other. We
develop more and more effective tools. And eventually, these tools
become too dangerous to use. We've seen this with chemical and
nuclear weapons. Eventually, we become too good at
killing each other. And yet ironically, many people are still looking
for the next big bad killing machines. It appears we've found them in
Terminator drones. But this time, the development of these
tools is out of our control. No one will be able to turn them all
off.

It only makes sense that
some people would predict that if we don't figure out a way to stop
wars, eventually we will invent the tool that will result in Hell on
Earth.

...Or then again, maybe we
already have.

Our “Hell on Earth
tools” don't have to kill us all directly – and instantly.

All they have to do is
make things worse – and there be a lot of them.

And all these “tools”
have to be... is perceived as indispensable.

Corporations are tools
also – “tools” for making money. And like all tools, there are
consequences for using them. I shouldn't have to tell you how our
“tools” are trashing the planet. One might even argue that these
corporate “tools” have developed hyper-efficient super
powers of turning everything of any real value into money. Sounds
great for now, but in the long term, the consequences of world-wide
exploitation will be horrific.

Example:

The fossil fuel industry
provides us with the fuel to run our civilization. But the industry
has long
outlived the accumulating consequences of mining and burning
fossil fuels. We are altering our atmosphere and poisoning ourselves.

We think we need
money. But what we really need are food, clothing,
shelter, health, and love – in a environment sustainable
indefinitely. Ironically, the process of the accumulation of money often reduces, degrades, or destroys what we really need.

We ignore better
options and better designs because we don't see advertisements for
them – or companies buy up the patents or overregulateto keep anyone else from
utilizing better designs than their profitable ones.

We believe that
renewable energy (etc.) is more expensive – but we don't consider the externalities; the costs to our health, the climate, and the environment when we
calculate the bottom line.

On top of it all; we
buy the biggest gas powered (artificial) “muscle” cars we can
ever imagine wanting – for the longest trip we could ever imagine
taking – and then manically drive them around (filled with stuff
we don't really need) to places we could have ridden a bike to. (Of course, we have the same attitude about homes.)

It appears that our
biggest mistakes in life most often involve the misuse and poor
design of our tools. We waste. We pollute. We impoverish. We kill.
Because that's what we've made our tools do.

The next two Laws of
Robotics (in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot) are applicable for all of
our tools, business structures, and economic systems:

A robot must obey the
orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect
its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with
the First or Second Laws.

Our systems aren't doing
that. Our systems actually compel us to do wrong sometimes. In fact,
you may have noticed our corporations, political parties, countries,
and even religions have taken on their own artificial “lives” –
and are sometimes more concerned about protecting their own existence
than ours. Moreover, when these organizations do obey orders, they
ignore the vast majority of us – at our expense.

One could even claim that
our systems have already consumed us and now we exist as merely
organs of a planet sized super-organism that is obsessively maximizing profits above all...and
consequently hell-bent on self-destruction.

Of course, organizations
are only people. But these organizations are often organized to
essentially force those who make decisions to choose what's best for
the organization over the employees, humanity, or even life on Earth.

About Me

I am Western Shoshone, native to Nevada. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and ten years experience as a Systems Engineer. I am also the author of the book "lifehacking," available at amazon.com